Wednesday, 5 May 2010

One step forward, two steps back

I'm getting up really early to cast my pointless vote in Kenneth Clarke's constituency tomorrow, as I've got to be at a work do tomorrow night.

My heart is full of dread at the Tories getting in, just slightly more than the thought of five more years of a right wing Labour government. I'll never vote Green, and Nick Clegg is the head of a party that has no qualms at all about co-operating with the Tories to push through cuts at local council level. He also has a name that sounds like a cough.

So, I'll walk down Trent Boulevard to the polling booth with a heavy heart, past the idiotic Green candidate who always thinks he's got my vote as he nods at me with a knowing smile, and throw away my "democratic rights" for another five years. It's all very depressing.

They say (they being the mainstream state and capitalist media) that this campaign has been "fascinating" and has "re-engaged" the electrate. Utter bollocks. The media is happy because, as never before, it has the whip hand. it's influenced this election more than in any general election I can remember, and has forced the three main parties in a desperate scramble to the bottom of populism.

It's at times like these when The Housemartins ring most true:

From the front page news to the interviews Its sink the reds and lift the blues They pretend they're differing points of view But it's only different shades of blue

But the implications I mistook Until I found out whose side you took And now with paper in my hand I'm beginning to understand